Fritz Billeter

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Fritz Billeter (born June 5, 1929 in Zurich ) is a Swiss Germanist, literary and art critic.

Life

Fritz Billeter spent part of his early childhood on a farm . In 1935 the family moved to Riehen near Basel as a result of the father's change of job as commercial director of the Dyeing and Finishing Schusterinsel GMBH in Weil am Rhein , Germany .

Billeter studied German language and literature with art history and French literature as minor subjects at the University of Basel . He did his doctorate with Walter Muschg with the dissertation "The poetic in Kafka and Kierkegaard / A typological comparison". The picture “Tierschicksale” by Franz Marc , created in 1913, which Billeter saw at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1950, became his key experience. In light of this work, he realized that modern art would make up a large part of his life. In 1959 Billeter moved to Zurichand married Erika, nee Schulze, the former vice director of the Kunsthaus Zürich and later director of the Musée Cantonal des Beaux Arts . From 1960 to 1971 he taught German and art history at various high schools. From 1971 to 1995 he worked as the cultural editor of the Tages-Anzeiger with a focus on visual design with a special focus on the fine arts , photography and design .

Since his retirement he has been working as a freelance journalist and writer. Since 2013 Billeter has lived with his second wife, Julia Vonderlinn, a former actress, in Volketswil, Canton Zurich, in a converted factory.

Mandates and consulting activities

Billeter was a co-founder of the Zurich Producers Gallery (PRODUGA) and its president from 1971 to 1978. The cooperative and self-help organization of around 20 politically determined artists is still considered important today. Among them were Cristina Fessler, Rosina Kuhn and Hugo Schuhmacher.

In 2013, Billeter co-founded the Art Dock association, which had set itself the goal of offering artists from the city of Zurich and its catchment area a platform and tapping into their national and international significance, as well as looking after their estates and updating them through exhibitions, to make it accessible and visible to an audience.

From 1974 to 1997 Billeter advised ABC Verlag Zürich, which published monographs on important contemporary Swiss artists. At the same time he wrote several artist monographs for this publisher.

From 1983 to 2004, together with Peter Killer, Willy Rotzler and later Beat Stutzer, he built up a collection of Swiss artists from 1939 to the present for Charles Vögele's cultural center in Pfäffikon . The collecting activity was accompanied by exhibitions of purchases and publications.

Publications (selection)

As an author / co-author
  • with Franz Xaver Erni: measuring and floating. Poems. Vorstadtpresse, Biel 1958.
  • The poetic in Kafka and Kierkegaard; a typological comparison. Dissertation. PG Keller, Winterthur 1965.
  • Modern art - our present. , 3 volumes. ed. Seedamm - Kulturzentrum Pfäffikon / SZ, 1985–2004, Volume 1, ISBN 3-908113-02-4 , Volume 2, ISBN 3-908113-09-1 , Volume 3, ISBN 3-908113-20-2 .
  • with Rosina Kuhn : Lissy Funk. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 1999, ISBN 3-85881-120-3 .
  • For the day. Beyond the day / From art and about artists. Benteli Verlag Sulgen, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-7165-1575-4 .
  • with Peter Killer and others: 1968 Zurich is upside down / rebellion. Denial, utopia. Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-85881-220-9 .
  • Art and Society , An Essay. Athena Verlag, Oberhausen 2017, ISBN 978-3-7455-1006-5 .
Publications at ABC - Verlag, Zurich (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dora Imhof: Interview with Fritz Billeter . In: Oral History. November 3, 2011, accessed July 19, 2020.
  2. ↑ Vögele Kultur: Bücher (voegelekultur.ch , accessed on July 19, 2020)
  3. ^ SIK ISEA: Exhibition Seedamm-Kulturzentrum, Pfäffikon . May 7th to June 30th 1985.
  4. ^ Stefan Howald: Art as a seismograph . In: WOZ . No. 26/2018, June 28, 2018, accessed on July 19, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Billeter, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss Germanist, literary and art critic
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich